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“There’s always struggle, and there’s always hope. I feel comfortable with both of those forces in my life at all times,” Keeton Coffman says. “When you remove one of them, it feels weird.”

Coffman is pacing on his front porch, taking a moment to explain the tension not just that he’s found, but that he needs. “I love these new songs because you can hear the hope in them, but you can feel the weight of the circumstances, too,” he says. “If you just get dark for the sake of dark, you forget you still have a pulse, and hey, your heart is still pumping for a reason.”

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“Wounded little heart at the radio dial, waiting for a lyric and a song to smile on you… wasted what you couldn’t on a fool that you know ain’t worth a damn… you were in on a hope, yeah you… kept waiting for him to give you anything but a broken heart.”

The new songs Coffman is referencing make up his latest album, Hard Times, a 10-track feat of triumphant, ragtop-down rock-and-roll. Anchored in Coffman’s natural storytelling and earthy voice, Hard Times is both a reintroduction and a return for an artist who’s pushed through starts and stops, but who’s never been anything but exactly who he is. “I’ve never needed someone’s permission to write,” Coffman says. “I’ve always just thought it’s what I should do.”

Growing up in Bryan-College Station, Texas, Coffman found an old Alvarez guitar in his mother’s closet behind stacks of Motown, 70s songwriters, and Tina Turner records. “My mom showed me three or four chords after I confronted her with the guitar, like, ‘Why has this been hidden in our house?’” Coffman says with a smile. An elite gymnast en route to becoming a national champion, he carried the guitar with him on long bus rides to competitions, and then west to college at the University of Texas at Austin. When an injury finally ended his athletic career at 20, Coffman immersed himself wholly in music.

 

“I’ve been hiding something up my sleeve. I’m getting pretty good now, at making you believe…”

 
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After graduation, Coffman packed up and moved to Houston, where he first built a following with his band, The 71s. The quartet decided to part ways in 2012, and solo projects including 2016’s Killer Eyes followed, always gaining traction thanks to Coffman’s Springsteen-esque grasp on the beauty only found in grit. Houston Press, Space City Rock, and other outlets noticed. But as projects opened doors, Coffman had to step back, moved by forces out of his control. Diagnosed with Bipolar II and Obsessive-compulsive disorder while still in high school, the diseases reared up and set him down. “You don’t know why Bipolar pops up when out does––it just comes out of nowhere, and boom,” Coffman says. “A few years ago, when things got very difficult, I decided, well, I’m not going to stop writing even though I’m not sure if these songs are any good - my analytical skills aren’t what they should be. When I got back to myself, I had these 10 songs.”

 

“She was a lifeguard at the local waterpark swimming pool. Sold cigarettes to the rich girls after school. Ocean blue eyes straight off the coast of Maine, and a smile to steal your heart, curves like a work of art, gliding down the boulevard… hey boys, here comes my little hurricane.”

 
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Hard Times comprises those songs––and Coffman’s willingness to trust the process. “When I just let the notes float around as they want to, I am symptom-free in the midst of all that,” he says. “On the hard days, the more music I play, the less my mind hurts.” Tracks including “The Magician” and “Night” tackle deception carried out by different actors to different ends, while songs such as “In the End,” “River Town,” and “Wounded Heart” explore faith, consistency, and love. Vivid details form multi-dimensional character sketches moving through recognizable Texas skylines, and the guitar-wrapped stories and confessions become our own.

“I hope people find themselves in the characters,” Coffman says. “This is a record I wrote from my experiences, but these aren’t stories about me. I hope these characters share your story, your thoughts, your pain. We can share the same hope––that’s what music does for me.”

 
Keeton Coffman whips up a classic Americana dish with ‘Wounded Heart’. The Americana artist with a high-energy heartbreaking single…with an addictive drumbeat, guitars, and Coffman’s vocals saturated with emotion. Everything is flawless – every note is perfect, every line delivered with emotional weight, and the tone of the track is somehow bittersweet and upbeat all at once.
— B-SIDES & BADLANDS, 2021
Keeton Coffman certainly has a way with a song and his knack for soulful indie rock makes him a diamond in the DIY world of reckless recordings. Coffman shines with a tender delivery and a big powerful song structure that is an unscripted blender of John Mayer, Nick Lowe and Matthew Sweet.
— Glide Magazine, 2021